Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid
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Israel’s defence minister has doubled down on remarks suggesting he envisions the construction of settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Israel Katz said he continues to support the establishment of outposts in Gaza by the Nahal military unit, which often later become officially recognised settlements.
All forms of Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law.
Katz said this was the vision he believed in and that it would be carried out “in due time”.
Earlier this week, Katz said that “when the time is right”, Israel would create what he described as “Nahal” settlements in northern Gaza.
Read more: Israel’s Katz doubles down on support of settlements in Gaza
Israeli forces targeted several areas in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis city, in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian media reported.
The report said many Palestinians were also wounded as a result of Israeli shelling that targeted the Shujaiya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.
A hospital in the war-torn Gaza Strip was forced to suspend medical services on Thursday due to fuel shortages caused by an ongoing Israeli siege, despite the ceasefire signed in October.
Ahmed Muhanna, director of al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza, told Al Jazeera Mubasher that, “with a heavy heart”, staff were forced to pause most services.
He stressed that depriving health institutions of fuel prevents thousands of Palestinians from accessing vital medical care.
The hospital, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, provides maternity services and is caring for more than a dozen children suffering from malnutrition.
Muhanna said that at least 30 children will be transferred to other hospitals due to a lack of medical capacity.
Read more: Fuel shortage forces Gaza hospital to halt services as Israeli siege deepens
Israeli settlers on Thursday attacked homes and wounded a Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank, said Bedouin rights group al-Baydar.
The eight-month-old baby was wounded and hospitalised after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian homes and property with stones late on Wednesday in the al-Rabia area of Sa’ir town, northeast of Hebron in the southern West Bank, the rights group said.
Settlers also uprooted dozens of olive trees in the town of Dayr Balut, west of Salfit in the central West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, which said the attack caused extensive damage to farmland in the area.
Israeli settlers also plowed about one acre of land planted with olives in Turmus Ayya town, north of Ramallah.
On Wednesday, settlers plowed about 1.2 acres of farmland in the same town.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,102 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and detained around 21,000.
The ministry of health in Gaza on Thursday said that five Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours, including four whose bodies were recovered from under the rubble, amid ongoing Israeli aggression.
In a statement, the ministry said that the number of Palestinians killed due to the Israeli genocidal war since 7 October 2023 has risen to 70,942, while the number of wounded has reached 171,195.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel would never leave Gaza and that the occupied West Bank would see more settlements, military bases and the expulsion of Palestinians.
"Israel will never leave Gaza's territory," he said. "There will be a significant security zone that will surround Gaza in controlled places to protect the settlement."
"In the northern part, it will be possible, in my view, to establish Nahal outposts in an orderly manner when the time comes," he said, referring to the military service in which soldiers combine active duty with work on outlying settlements or outposts.
Speaking at an education conference held by the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon, Katz said: "We are implementing a policy of practical sovereignty there [the West Bank]. It is impossible now, due to the circumstances, to declare sovereignty. Practical sovereignty means... [evacuating] the Palestinians from the terror camps and stationing the Israel Defense Forces there, and establishing settlements."
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday condemned the international backlash against the approval of new illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the criticism was “discriminatory against Jews”.
“The cabinet decision to establish 11 new settlements and to formalise eight additional settlements is intended, among other things, to help address the security threats Israel is facing,” he said.
Fourteen countries, including France, Britain and Germany, condemned Israel's recent approval of new settlements in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
"We, States of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom condemn the approval by the Israeli security cabinet of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank," said a joint statement released by the French foreign ministry.
On Sunday, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Pope Leo on Thursday decried the conditions Palestinians in Gaza are living in due to the Israeli war and the blockade on essential supplies.
In his Christmas sermon, the Pope said: "The story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had pitched his fragile tent among the people of the world. How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold."
Leo, who is the first American pope, last month said that the only solution to the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people must include a Palestinian state.
Israeli forces on Thursday killed a Palestinian man, Sami Ahmed Attia Abu Darabi, in Beit Lahia city, in northern Gaza, amid ongoing military operations in the area, Palestinian media reported.
In a separate incident, an Israeli drone struck a gathering of Palestinians after dropping bombs on Salah al-Din Street near the old governorate building in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The report said the drone strike caused injuries at the scene, amid continued raids in the city.
In Jerusalem, the Red Crescent reported that its crews responded after a 25-year-old man was hit in the leg by live bullets near the "apartheid wall" in the town of Al-Ram.
Israel's High Court of Justice on Thursday allowed the army's planned demolition of 25 residential buildings in the Nur al-Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarm by rejecting a petition that challenged the move, Haaretz reported.
The report said that Justices David Mintz, Yael Willner and Ofer Grosskopf ruled that the decision was based on "a clear and urgent military necessity".
The Israeli military had announced last week that it would continue its demolition operation in the West Bank, which has led to the displacement of thousands of families from refugee camps in the region.
Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza, said on Thursday that 90 percent of the population cannot find basic food due to supply shortages caused by Israeli restrictions on essential goods, Al Jazeera reported.
Shawa said the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip has continued to worsen two months after the ceasefire came into effect, with forced displacement ongoing and living conditions deteriorating.
More than half a million people have lost their homes, while thousands of Palestinians are living in the remains of destroyed buildings, the report quoted Shawa as saying.
The director of al-Awda Hospital in Gaza said on Thursday that the hospital is being forced to stop services in most departments as a result of running out of diesel fuel, Al Jazeera reported.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Mubasher, he said continued fuel shortages would lead to the cessation of vital medical services.
The official made an "urgent appeal to the international community" to intervene to prevent the collapse of the hospital's health system and to preserve the lives of patients.
UN agencies said Israel's blockade of Gaza has impacted aid access and called on Tel Aviv to immediately open all crossings, particularly to northern Gaza, where the closure of key routes has forced convoys to take long and dangerous detours.
The Palestinian Ministry of National Economy on Wednesday condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on the supply of essential goods and basic commodities to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli settlers set fire to a bulldozer at a quarry in the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, in the early hours of Thursday, according to the Wafa news agency.
Local sources told Wafa that a group of settlers stormed the Khallat Hajji quarry area, east of the town, and burned heavy machinery belonging to the al-Taweel family, causing extensive material damage.
Residents said the attack forms part of a sustained pattern of settler violence targeting Beit Fajjar and its surrounding areas, particularly eastern zones near quarries and agricultural land. These assaults have included arson, equipment vandalism and attacks on workers and farmers.
Palestinians say Israeli occupation forces routinely protect settlers during such incidents, leaving communities exposed and livelihoods under threat as violations across the occupied West Bank continue to escalate.
Civil defence teams in Gaza have recovered the bodies of 14 Palestinians from beneath the rubble of a home destroyed by Israeli forces in the al-Satar al-Gharbi area, northwest of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza from previous Israeli strikes.
Gaza’s Civil Defence said its crews retrieved the bodies from the site of the attack before transferring them to the relevant authorities and forensic services. At least 10,000 bodies are believed to be under the rubble in Gaza.
Emergency and ambulance services reported multiple injuries caused by Israeli fire in and around Jabalia and Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
The reports came as Israeli forces carried out wide-scale demolition operations east of Khan Younis, following artillery attacks on the area.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent said Israeli troops conducted extensive demolitions and ground raids inside their deployment areas east of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
The operations coincided with Israeli air raids targeting areas east of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
Israeli warplanes also carried out several strikes within areas where forces are positioned in Rafah, in the south of the enclave.
In central Gaza, the eastern edge of the Bureij refugee camp came under intense artillery fire and heavy gunfire from Israeli military vehicles.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said a child was wounded by Israeli gunfire outside Israeli deployment zones near the al-Maghazi refugee camp, also in central Gaza.
